Nonconsummatory and consummatory behavioral CRs elicited by lithium- and amphetamine-paired flavors

Various behavioral CRs elicited by saccharin solution previously paired with either lithium or amphetamine were measured in a series of four experiments. With one conditioning trial, lithium (Experiment 1), but not amphetamine (Experiment 2), produced nonconsummatory behavioral evidence of conditioning in the form of chin-rub CRs; both drugs, however, produced strong flavor aversions. With 3 conditioning trials, lithium- and amphetamine-paired flavors elicited a pattern of agitated activity, characterized by increased general activity, rearing duration, and body temperature, when the flavor was forcibly presented through an intraoral cannula (Experiment 3). When the flavor was presented in a single-bottle test (Experiment 4), 3 conditioning trials produced a similar pattern of agitated activity characterized by increased general activity, rearing (duration and frequency), stretching (duration and frequency), and limb flicking. Although both drugs supported the pattern of increased agitation-related CRs, only the lithium-paired flavors elicited chin-rub CRs (Experiments 1, 3, and 4). The difference between the drug conditions was not the result of a greater saccharin aversion in the lithium-conditioned group than in the amphetamine-conditioned group (Experiment 4). The results are related to findings that suggest that flavor aversions are mediated by a shift in the hedonic properties of the drug-paired flavors.     

Parents' and preschool children's choices of disciplinary childrearing methods

Forty preschoolers individually were shown a videotape containing six 30-second scenes depicting common parent/child conflicts. The children were asked to tell the experimenter what they would do if they were the parent on the tape, and what their own parents would do if this happened at home. In addition, 15 mothers of these children were selected randomly to view the same scenes and to indicate their choice of conflict resolution methods. Taped responses of parents and children were then coded as verbal/physical coercion or no coercion. Results indicated that preschoolers tended to choose disciplinary actions in accordance with their perceptions of their parents' manner of dealing with the same situation, and also revealed a high congruence between parent and child on consequences for discipline. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the development of childrearing methods at an early age and the intergenerational transmission of family violence.     

Control of social desirability in personality inventories: Principal-factor deletion

Rational and statistical techniques for controlling social desirability (SD) in scales derived from self-report inventories are reviewed. The principal-factor deletion technique is explained in detail. It is applied during factor analysis when derived content scales are expected to be tainted with SD. If one principal factor is found to represent social desirability, the implicated factor is dropped and the communalities adjusted before the remaining factors are rotated to a desired simple structure criterion. Subscales derived from resulting factors are free of SD bias. Principal-factor deletion is compared with other approaches including rational techniques, covariate procedures, and target rotation.     

The behavioural treatment of obsessional-compulsive disorders, with and without clomipramine

The effects of behavioural treatment alone, and in combination with clomipramine, were assessed on 40 patients with chronic obsessional-compulsive disorders, using a 2 × 2 factorial design. These effects were assessed by behavioural measures and mood measures.The behavioural treatment was followed by significant improvements on most behavioural measures. Clomipramine administration was followed by significant improvements on mood scales and some behavioural measures. There were no significant interactions between these two experimental conditions.     

Conditioned and unconditioned defensive burying in the rat

When rats first encountered a mouse-trap or a flashbulb in a chamber to which they had been habituated, they buried it with bedding material from the floor of the chamber, whereas rats previously habituated to the trap or the flashbulb did not. Conversely, rats did not bury a stationary, wire-wrapped wooden prod or a length of polyethylene tubing, even on first encounter. However, almost every rat struck by the trap, shocked by the prod, exposed to an airblast from the tube, or to a flash of the bulb, buried the respective source of aversive stimulation with the bedding material, even when a comparable control object was present during conditioning and testing. Thus, the phenomenon of defensive burying is not restricted to situations in which neutral objects serve as the source of painful electric shock. Rats seem to enter the experimental environment with an already established tendency to bury some objects (unconditioned defensive burying) but not others, and they readily learn to selectively bury an object that has been the source of any one of a variety of aversive stimuli (conditioned defensive burying).     

The effects of suggestion structure and hypnotic vs task-motivation instructions on response to hallucination suggestions

Hypnotic and task-motivated subjects were given both auditory and visual hallucination suggestions that were either Brief, Long, or provided an imaginary Context. The Long and Context suggestions were equated for length. Task-motivated subjects scored higher than hypnotic subjects on both auditory and visual hallucination suggestions. Suggestion-type (Brief, Long, Context) affected response to the auditory but not the visual suggestion. Hypnotic and task-motivated hallucinators were equally likely to describe their images as being transparent. Theoretical implications are discussed.     

Left hemisphere selectivity for processing duration in normal subjects

The role of the left cerebral hemisphere for the discrimination of duration was examined in a group of normal subjects. Two tasks were presented: the first required a reaction-time response to the offset of monaural pulse sequences varying in interpulse duration, and the second required the discrimination of small differences in durations, within a delayed-comparison paradigm. In each task a right-ear advantage was obtained when the durations were 50 msec or less. No ear advantage was obtained for the larger durations of 67 to 120 msec. Since the perceptual distinctiveness of phonemes may be provided by durations approximating 50 msec, the nature of the relationship between the left hemisphere's role in temporal processing and speech processing may be elaborated.     

The Two Faces of Codependent Relating: A Research-Based Perspective

Using an overview of the controversial concept of codependency as a backdrop, the paper summarizes outcomes of a project devoted to developing and applying a technique for assessing codependent relating. Results support the clinically based contention that there is a pattern of relating in dysfunctional relationships that warrants the label codependent, and that some (but not all) cases of such relating stem from a distinctive codependency personality syndrome. These results gave rise to a perspective that combines a relational process with a dispositional view of codependent relating, and proposes that codependency may be either endogenous (chronic) or exogenous (reactive).     

Bringing “The Dead” to Life: Reading James Joyce

The author offers a personal reading of James Joyce's The Dead. She focuses on how the sounds of the language are used to portray the main character's deadness and his beginning to come to life once the barriers to inner self and self-knowledge are broken.     

Rereading sophistical arguments: A political intervention

This essay argues that Aristotle's categories of oratory are not as useful in judging the methods of Sophistical rhetoric as his presentation of time. The Sophistical argumentative method of making the weaker the stronger case is re-evaluated as a political practice. After showing this argument's relation to power and ideology, Aristotle's philosophy, which privileges a procedure of argument consistent with the politics of a polis-ideal rhetoric, is offered as reason for objecting to Sophistical rhetoric. The essay concludes that Sophistical rhetoric prefers the concept of possibility over Aristotelian actuality, and offers a need for an ideological space of radical, generative possibility in rhetorical theory.